Five ways of looking at Bellator 106: Rubber match, King Mo, a surprising Straus

As Bellator 106 came to a close on Saturday night, I found myself trying to imagine the alternate universe where Tito Ortiz‘s neck was still in one piece, where the event had remained a pay-per-view offering, and where I had just paid $45 to see it.

It’s not as simple a hypothetical as it sounds. There are a lot of pluses and minuses to factor in.

For one thing, you have to imagine that the PPV wouldn’t have taken more than three hours just to get to the final fight, since PPVs don’t typically include the same Reebok commercial on a continuous loop between fights. So there’s one in the plus column.

The point is, a lot depends on expectations. If you looked at Bellator 106 as just another Bellator show on Spike TV, hey, a great main event made it worth staying home for. If you looked at it as Bellator’s big night, however, the one it pulled out all the stops for, well, kind of feels like something’s missing (and no, that something was not two aging fighters in the main event).

Did Saturday night prove that Bellator has some good fighters, including two lightweights who are far and away the crown jewels of the organization? Sure. Did it give us any reason to think a successful transition to PPV is on the horizon? Nope. But maybe that’s not so bad. At least not for those of us who like keeping our money in our wallets.

Some other thoughts on Bellator 106:

1. Let’s not even pretend like Alvarez-Chandler III isn’t the best fight Bellator could possibly make right now.

Bjorn Rebney knows it. After Alvarez (25-3 MMA, 10-1 BMMA) nabbed the narrow decision over Chandler (12-1 MMA, 9-1 BMMA) in the rematch, the Bellator chairman and CEO said he wouldn’t miss out on a chance to do the trilogy fight “unless I have my brains removed.”

Of course, he also called the second meeting “the best mixed martial arts fight I’ve ever seen,” which, come on, let’s not get carried away. Regardless of whether you think this was the greatest fighter ever or merely a very, very good one, go ahead and plan on a Chandler-Alvarez rubber match. After what we’ve seen from them so far, I’d watch them fight every weekend (which I assume would kill them, what with the way they go at it). What I wonder is, how long can Bellator’s lightweight division get by on being a two-man show?

2. What happened to the old “King Mo” Lawal?

Back when he was one of the fastest-rising stars on the Strikeforce roster, I remember a friend describing Lawal’s fighting style as exactly what would happen if amateur wrestling allowed each competitor to throw five punches to the head over the course of the match. He fought from a low crouch, working his way in, and when he did swing, it was meant to take your head off.

Now Lawal (11-3 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) seems to fancy himself a boxer who occasionally dives for a takedown. That didn’t work against Emanuel Newton (22-7-1 MMA, 5-1 BMMA), whose offense consisted almost entirely of rarely effective spinning maneuvers. He didn’t do a ton to hurt Lawal, but he didn’t give him anything too easy, either.

Lawal is still a great personality whom Bellator would love to have as a bankable star, but he has to get back to doing what he does best, which is putting people on their backs and punching holes in their heads.

3. Straus’ performance against Curran a pleasant surprise.

I admit I expected Pat Curran to roll through challenger Daniel Straus. Maybe that’s because prior to Saturday night, most MMA fans likely only knew Straus as the American Top Team guy who got busted with weed and Molly in his car.

The fact that he rolled through the competition in Bellator, well, that’s nice and all, but Curran seemed like one of the five best featherweights in the world – not just in this organization. Straus (22-4 MMA, 8-1 BMMA) didn’t exactly blow him out of the water, but there was still a lot to like about his solid overall performance. By the end, even Curran (19-5 MMA, 9-2 BMMA) seemed prepared to admit that.

4. “Diesel” gets the job done, and then gets paid.

I’m not going to call Joe Riggs‘ win over Mike Bronzoulis (15-6-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) unexpected or even particularly entertaining. Riggs (40-14 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) is a veteran, and veterans know that sometimes it’s best to put your head down and get the job done. How many risks would you be willing to take just to entertain the fans in a fight where the win bonus is $95,000? That’s right, unlike the UFC’s promise of a “six-figure contract” to the winner of a reality show, Bellator actually paid out a cool $100,000 to Riggs for winning the “Fight Master” final.

You’ve got to feel good for Riggs, who was been up and down and all around in this sport. Five grand to show, and $95,000 to win? Riggs may never see a payday quite like that again. If “Fight Master” faces the fate we’re all expecting, neither will anyone else.

5. If you tuned into Bellator for the first time on Saturday, what did you see?

Probably a show that started off great thanks to Mike Richman‘s knockout, but then got bogged down by slow pacing and some questionable interview choices. Or at least, that’s what those of us in most of the country saw. On the West Coast, where the event was tape delayed, you probably saw “COPS.” Nothing against that show, but once you’ve seen a couple, haven’t you pretty much seen them all?

I can’t understand why Spike TV couldn’t do its own MMA organization a solid and run the fights live everywhere. I also can’t understand why it took so long just to get to the good stuff. If you know you’ve got three title fights on the card, you should also know that there’s a chance you’ll end up with an hour and a half of fighting between them. If one ends quickly, fine, pull out your time-filler. If they all go the distance, let’s keep things moving.

This was the big show to draw all the fans who usually can’t be troubled to take a Friday night and watch Bellator, right? Best to make sure you give them a show they’ll want to come back for, even when the big names are home with ice packs on their faces.

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